Ninth inning grand slam propels Mets past Reds

Ike Davis (right) is greeted by his teammates after hitting a walk-off-grand-slam on Saturday

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Ike Davis may have lost his everyday starting job, but it was his ninth inning grand slam that stunned the Reds on Saturday afternoon to give the Mets a 6-3 victory at Citi Field.

The Reds (1-4) continued to give up the long ball as all six runs for New York (2-3) came via the home run. In fact all ten runs this series have come by homers and 13 of the 18 runs allowed have also come by the long ball.

Johnny Cueto was solid once again except for one pitch he made in the sixth inning to Curtis Granderson, his second home run given up this season. He lasted seven innings and struck out nine, but did walk three and allowed five hits. Dillon Gee posted a strong outing over 7.1 innings, but was also a victim of the homer.

It was one of those home runs that gave the Reds a 1-0 lead in the fifth when Ryan Ludwick sent one into the left field seats. That lead held until the bottom of the sixth when Granderson sent Cueto's offering deep into right field stands to score David Wright and make it a 2-1 game.

Gee was left in for an inning too long as he gave up a pinch hit double to Chris Heisey and then a two-run homer to Brandon Phillips to shift the lead back to the Reds in the eighth. Scott Rice came on to keep the Reds off the board and Carlos Torres (1-0) did the same in the ninth. Sam LeCure pitched a 1-2-3 eighth to set up J.J. Hoover (1-1) for the save.

Instead Hoover walked Juan Lagares and then Anthony Recker attempted to bunt Lagares over, but Joey Votto threw to second for the out. That is until Mets manager Terry Collins challenged that Lagares beat the throw, which after further review, the call was overturned and put runners at first and second with no outs. Hoover then walked Ruben Tejada and the Mets called up Davis to pinch hit. Davis then smacked a curveball from Hoover over the right field wall for a walk-off-grand-slam to give the Mets back-to-back wins.

The Reds have now lost three straight and will try to avoid being swept when Alfredo Simon takes on Ohio native, Jonathan Niese, who is just coming off the disabled list. First pitch is set for 1:10 p.m.

Reds catcher Tucker Barnhart picked up his first two Major League hits, going 2-4 in his second career start.

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Kevin Pool is a 2009 graduate of Eastern Michigan University where he majored in journalism. While there he covered Mid-American Conference and Big Ten collegiate sports as well as two WNBA playoff games for the Detroit Shock. After graduation he began covering high school sports in Northwest Ohio before moving to Northern Kentucky where he resides today with his wife. You may contact Kevin with your comments and questions.